Security systems are used to monitor homes and businesses to prevent unwanted intrusions as well as to guard against natural disasters. Critical to the operation of such security systems is their arming and disarming. Generally a security system is armed and disarmed using a keypad on a control panel residing within the structure that the system monitors; however, other arming/disarming methods or devices can be used. Another aspect of home or business security relates to telephone usage. An unanswered telephone can reveal that the home or business is not occupied, not only causing business opportunities to be missed, but also potentially inviting intrusions. However, the call forwarding telephone feature can be used to enable a telephone to be answered away from the physical location of the telephone. Currently, users that have both a security system and the call forwarding telephone feature on their telephone systems have to perform two sets of actions when leaving their premises. The first is to setup their call forwarding via their telephone system, and the second is to arm their security system via their keypad or other arming device.
A switching system for automatically transferring a telephone call is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,901,211 for System and Method for Automatically Transferring Calls or Allowing Access. This switching system enables the opening of a door, or other event, to cause telephone calls to be automatically forwarded. The system can be used, for example, in a hotel, as follows. When a customer enters the hotel room using an electronic key, the system detects the key opening the door and switches off automatic call forwarding, and when the customer leaves the room, the system switches on the automatic call forwarding so that calls to the hotel room are forwarded to the customer's cell phone.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,370,233, A Security System with Call Management Functionality, discloses connecting a security system to a telephone line. The system includes automated attendant service functions, such as a “follow me” service in which all calls are directed to either voice mail or a known location, depending on the user's physical location or on the time of day. Accordingly, the operation of the telephone's call forwarding feature in accordance with the security system is based on the user's location as sensed by the security system, or on time of day based on security system programming. Altering the state of the security system, from armed to disarmed or vice versa, or other user input from the keypad or other input device, does not change the activation of call forwarding.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,154,525, Security System with Call Forwarding Activation, discloses a security system configured to automatically enable and disable telephone functions in response to changes in the operational state of the system. For example, when the system state is changed to a higher level of security, call forwarding is enabled. However, other system changes or user criteria do not affect call forwarding.
Among the problems of the aforementioned systems are the necessity to perform more than one activity to both change the state of the security system and to activate and/or deactivate call forwarding, and the inability to adjust the call forwarding feature based on user preferences and/or user criteria.